


Lingering

by cokocipkukiz



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Friendship, Mentioned Aruani, Multi, No Exact Plot, im just playing with words, minor eremika, minor jeanpikku
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 12:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30105636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cokocipkukiz/pseuds/cokocipkukiz
Summary: One-sided love always left long-lasting bitterness in someone’s heart. Jean was the same but he decided to keep fighting for her.Just Jean, reflected his decision and lingering feeling for love and friendship.
Relationships: Mikasa Ackerman & Jean Kirstein, Mikasa Ackerman/Eren Yeager, Pieck Finger/Jean Kirstein
Kudos: 9





	Lingering

**Author's Note:**

> I hope I don’t write this like Jean cheating on Pieck lmao.
> 
> Warning: OOC-ness, typos  
>  Disclaimer: I don’t own the original series and the characters, yams owns them.

  
_Inspired by my friends, who brave enough to escape uncertainty._

* * *

It’s Sunday, morning, in the autumn season, perfect timing to take a walk for some people, lead on the unavoidable commotion. Tucked hands inside blazer pocket, Jean was wandering alone among the crowds. He had no destination, only a purpose seeking for breakfast.

It wasn’t without any reason Jean ended up like this. Pieck left early in the morning with a note, told him to send her a message as soon as he woke up and have breakfast outside because she had no time to make him one.

Despite being irritated, Jean immediately messaged her, ask if she would like him to pick her up and some love words. She said yes and apologized for leaving him alone.

Walked down through the street, he found an empty small café with large wooden windows and a friendly-faced barista behind the coffee bar. Jean read a small board in front of the door, checked if they were coffee only then found pastry on the list.

As quickly as he entered, the first thing that came to his mind was how retro freak the café owner was. Colorful yet classic ornaments hung over the walls, covering its initial color. A bell hung at the door frame, producing jingled sound each time the door open. The cashier cheerfully greeted Jean and ask his order.

After paying his order and the tip, Jean put his plate and cup on a random small table next to the open window, let the autumn breeze twisted his messy hair as he focused on the morning newspapers, not realized another guest opened the door.

“Would you mind if I sit here, sir?”

A woman’s voice. Jean bent his neck upward, his eyes widened.

Before him, was a person he wouldn’t expect to run into. Some of the dark hair strands slipped out through the red muffler she wore.

“Whoa, Mikasa? Is that you?”

“Yes, this is me. What makes you come here? Where’s Pieck?”

She put down her cup and a small plate of macarons after Jean gave her a hand sign to take the empty chair. Mikasa looked relaxed and delighted, unlike the last time he met her. Compared to her outfit and expression when she did the lawyer job it was hard to say she was the same person.

“Pieck has unfinished paperwork. She went so early this morning with a message to mailed her in case I woke up and I decided to pick her up. Lord, it’s Sunday,” he grumbled with a wry laugh.

“Then?”

“Actually, can cook on my own but decided to have breakfast here.”

“I see, we are the same then. I and Eren got some errands but suddenly the hospital made an emergency call. He told me he will back as soon as possible and now, I’m here. Wait I’ll tell Eren that I meet you.”

Mikasa picked her phone from her purse as Jean stirred up his coffee. He also messaged Pieck to take her time as much as she needed because he already got some meal and met Mikasa, so she mustn’t worry about him.

“Must be the critical case.”

“I guess so, cause the number that dialed him was emergency department.”

When she drank her tea quietly, Jean spotted a red ruby ring on her left ring finger.

Of course, she had engaged. That brunet blockhead had some guts to propose first than all of his friends. Even Armin whose relationship established more stable than his.

But deep down, Jean knew Armin already prepared a sapphire ring for Annie. “Let time do the talk, Jean,” he said. Darn, those blondies truly loved blue with all their might.

Witnessing how red perfectly suited Mikasa or how would blue matched Annie’s pale skin, Jean’s mind started thinking about what color would fit his lover the most. He didn’t notice how vast and clear the sky was until his throat swallowed his Ethiopian coffee, ignored its bitterness. He wasn’t sure which one was further ahead, the sky or their future.

‘Thinking about the future sure need some time, right?’

“How about your and Connie’s company?” asked Mikasa.

“We’re doing fine, thanks to the Ackermans. Your family investment covered our initial budget plan.”

Mikasa raised an eyebrow, her eyes roll indicated she was thinking. Her raven hair reflected the sunlight, blown by the morning wind.

Jean still considered her beautiful. She has always been anyway. Just the definition of beautiful for her and Pieck was different. Even Annie was beautiful, in her own way.

He didn’t know how was it going if it was Armin.

This tough girl has ever been his crush for a long time. Until he met Pieck at some random company party, gotten dragged to the dance floor with her by his companions, and slowly fell in love.

The true one. Not only slight crush.

Mikasa clapped her hands, figuring something out, “Levi did?”

“Yes, although he came to my office with an annoyed face and curse words, he kept his words by signed the agreement.”

Jean recalled the moment when he got no front-desk call about guest arrival, out of the blue Levi Ackerman got into his office, nearly split up his door hinges. He blurted out his irritation over the agreement paper, pointing some unfitting point, and asked refinements.

The Ackerman family was famous for their competencies as clever-cunning stockholders. But some of them were undercover double agents, mostly military or intelligence.

Despite her last name, Mikasa had somewhat chosen to go down on Azumabito Family law firm. Her mother lineage.

“Kenny must be laughing at how his nephew behaved. That old man. Even Miss Kiyomi have no idea anymore to go against him.”

“I heard your law firm is handling the Reiss inheritance disputes? Historia told me herself but she doesn’t have any chance to tell me the main ruckus.”

Mikasa slightly shifted her plate of macarons towards Jean, offering him some which he politely declined. She tapped her index fingers, sighed.

“Yes, their family conflict is classic but quite complicated. We all know that Historia is an illegitimate child of the Reiss family's main heir. Even the family accepts her as a Reiss, they can’t fully acknowledge her mother due to practically she was a mistress. The current chairman intends to give his position directly to Frieda Reiss, not Sir Rod.”

“The family hardly accepts the truth, though the second line heir claims Historia legally her sister. No matter who her mother is,” Mikasa continued with a low voice.

Jean relented his back to the chair. His eyes tracing the café’s ceiling pattern.

“I just think about how much pain she endured all this time. Even us know her real name when we were sophomore.”

“Agree, but Ymir always by her side. So, she never has to face them all alone anymore.”

After that, silence lingering longer than their conversation. The café’s bell jingled every time another guest swung the door open. The cashier shouted them blessing words, the analog clock ticked, and the heater machine buzzed sounds twisted up with that morning's calmness.

There was a time when Jean questioning Mikasa’s love for Eren romantic genuine or nah. Both of them were ‘adoptive’ siblings before officially became a couple. But there was also a time when Mikasa shown her love for Eren was unyielding and not platonic.

She graduated and became a rookie lawyer earlier than Eren but persistent to keep their relationship even at the moment Eren must continue his medical specialty education and Miss Kiyomi already had a long list of rich men just for her.

 _“I want to be with him through thick and thin, safely and bruised, peace and war. Or even he carries death within him,”_ she ever said. Once.

Jean respected her love and will as much as he admired her strength.

And actually, Mikasa was the one who encouraged Jean to stepped his comfort zone and sailed his heart with Pieck. She said he deserved a significant other and Mikasa had known her by business relation.

“Jean look, Armin sent me this.” Mikasa shown the man her phone screen.

There was a picture of Armin, with his childish smile, wore full ‘armor’ in preparation for diving. Behind him is an unknown ocean that was, and some men looked like the locals. His hands were holding a sea cucumber.

“Armin is a sucker for the ocean huh?” Jean’s forehead wrinkled as he saw the slimy creature.

“That is his major field, what can we expect? But aren’t underwater videos he sent beautiful?” her lips cracked into a small tender smile she always had whenever she talked about her ‘brother’.

“How the hell they be beautiful? I got walrus video and their voice is like a hungry donkey.”

“You got the bad one then. Oh, Eren said he is close.”

“Then? You wanna us pick a fight like high schooler?”

“Jean, that isn’t what I mean.”

The bell’s jingled again. A young man with bun-styled dark hair stepped into the café, eyes wandered looking for someone. He quickly waved his hand when saw Mikasa and Jean.

“Long time no see, you shitty blockhead.”

“Yo, horse face, long time no see.” Eren walked towards their place and stood behind Mikasa.

“Thanks for companying my fiancée. Did she hurt you somewhere perhaps?”

Jean shrugged but laughed after he saw Mikasa’s annoyed face.

“Eren,…” protested Mikasa.

“Kidding babe.”

Eren bowed his back and peck Mikasa’s cheek before leaving to the cashier. At the moment Jean could feel warmth lingering around them, concurrence with relief that he didn’t take a wrong decision in the past.

Like the coffee he purchased, one-sided love always left long-lasting bitterness in someone’s heart. Jean was the same but he decided to keep fighting for her.

Fighting for Mikasa’s happiness by let her go with her choice, by not relentlessly pursue her just for his selfishness. And by letting go of his crush for her to truly fall in love with another.

Jean respected her love and will, so he didn’t want to take them away only to make her his.

It wasn’t like he gave up or lost the battle. Just changed the track, thus his objectives weren’t a romantic relationship or himself anymore, but their respective goals. And their friendship.

The light on Mikasa’s eyes when Eren with her enough to not gave Jean any regret by moving on and stay with her as a friend. An old and good friend.

“Jean, sorry, but we must go now, there are some things we should take care of.” Eren’s hand was holding a takeaway cup tray, which indicated they didn’t have any intention to stay any longer. His other handheld Mikasa’s shoulder as he approached Jean for a farewell.

“Let me guess, your wedding preparation,” Jean hissed before revived a bro-fisting.

“Not usually you being that sharp, horse face.” Eren grinned. Mikasa stood up from her chair after tidying up her cup and plate on the tableside.

“Don’t forget to tell Pieck our regards! See ya!”

“Thanks, Jean.”

They waved a hand and disappear through the crowds. Jean folded the newspapers he read earlier and pile them up until his phone buzzed in a notification.

Pieck : Dear, sorry I make you wait. Can you pick me up?

Jean : Yep, I can, where should I go? Main or branch one?

Pieck : My branch office.

Jean : Got it.

Wait, are you in hurry?

Pieck : No, I still check some cooperation proposals at this very moment.

Why?

Jean : Okay, cappuccino or americano?

Pieck : ….

Cappuccino, no sugar.

Jean : Roger, ma’am

Pieck : Take care :)

Meanwhile Pieck:

“Sorry Jean, I forgot to left you a breakfast,” she giggled as her hand made some red ink streaks on the paper.

**Author's Note:**

> My apologies for the grammatical errors and inconsistency. Fr, I love Jean but it’s hard to manifest his entire character into words. So, I’m sorry if he losing his character in this one.
> 
> I tried to ship Mikasa with Jean, but useless. I ship Eremika since I was in the second year of middle school (now I’m in uni, second semester). After 138, I don’t think I can ever ship Mikasa with another cause even their love is immature and selfish, it’s unyielding and pure. If the series itself isn’t about ambitions, war, biological weapons, and blood I think Eremika could be a good couple.
> 
> But I crave Jeankasa friendship moment as well as I crave for Armin-Falco convo moment. Jean’s admiration for Mikasa has its own place in my heart. And I find Jeanpikku isn’t that bad. It may have the same vibes as Aruani except Jean isn’t as soft as Armin and Pieck isn’t a lone-wolf like Annie.
> 
> Thanks for reading!  
>  Comments and kudos appreciated :D


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